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Robert Falls

Age: 59

Occupation: Artistic director, Goodman Theatre

Still provocative after 28 years at the helm of Chicago’s most prominent theatre (in last year’s acclaimed production of Measure for Measure, he killed off a character who wasn’t supposed to die), Falls has audiences eating out of his hand. Last season, the shows on the main stage ran at 90 percent capacity, and revenue hit $23.8 million, up 6 percent. Next move: Falls will take his lavishly praised revival of The Iceman Cometh to New York in 2015.